Main streets across the world 2014-2015

Posted on: 20 November 2014
By: mackene
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Main Streets Across the World presents a global barometer of the retail sector, tracking rents in the world’s top 334 shopping locations across 64 countries. The main league table is drawn up by taking the most expensive location in each of the countries monitored. In addition, the publication provides overall regional commentary as well as specific luxury retail overviews for each region.

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Skills to build: LCCI/KPMG Skills Index (London and the South East) 2014

Posted on: 20 November 2014
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This report aims to quantify construction skill shortages across London and the South East, showing how they impact on the delivery of key infrastructure projects and public policy goals. Using a unique methodology developed by the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, the report outlines the labour required to deliver the construction projects planned for London and the South East between 2014 and 2017, and the gaps in training provision that must be filled to meet this demand.

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London Olympics 2012 photos

Posted on: 20 November 2014
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One of the final acts of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) is the launch of a new photo gallery to archive 100 of the most memorable images of the construction of London’s Olympic and Paralympic venues and facilities. The images reflect the work of the ODA since it came into existence in 2006, and include iconic aerial photos from 2007 to 2014, showing the development of the Olympic Park, and how it changed as the construction programme progressed. They are being made available on the photo sharing website, Flickr, for non-commercial download and use as the ODA prepares to close.

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Real London lives

Posted on: 20 November 2014
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g15 has commissioned Real London Lives, a major three-year longitudinal study from the University of York. Its latest report presents the findings of in-depth qualitative face-to-face interviews with working-age housing association residents from across the capital. The report confronts many of the stereotypes attached to people living in social housing.

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China rethinks urbanization

Posted on: 20 November 2014
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The November 2014 issue of Planning, the magazine of the American Planning Association, includes this article which considers the importance of China’s first national urbanization plan.

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Measuring the prosperity of cities

Posted on: 20 November 2014
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The objective of this Special Edition of Habitat International (Vol.45 Part 1, January 2015) is to advance a dialogue that will promote the development of a more robust and useful measure of the prosperity of cities.

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Zira Island: Central Asia’s first carbon neutral master plan in Baku, Azerbaijan

Posted on: 20 November 2014
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Zira, off the coast of Azerbaijan is considered to be one of the few ‘eco-island’ initiatives around. The plan to develop, as an island ‘entirely independent of external resources, and ‘a model of future development in the Caucasus region’.

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Hosting mega events: Londoners’ support of the 2012 Olympics

Posted on: 20 November 2014
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Mega-event successes depend considerably on the host community’s support, even if their planning and development allows little input from local residents. This article in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management (Vol.21 December 2014) examines the use of a structural model to access key factors of residents’ perceptions for the 2012 London Olympics. The findings reveal that community support is influenced by perceptions of positive and negative impacts, and of community participation. They also indicate the importance of the Olympics’ perceived positive and negative impacts, whilst the willingness of support is directly and indirectly connected with the community’s participation in decision making.

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Sustainable freight transport

Posted on: 20 November 2014
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The topic of sustainable freight transport was considered at the 13th World Conference on Transport Research in Rio de Janiero in July 2013. Seven of the nine papers published in this issue of Research in Transportation Business and Management (Vol.12, October 2014) were initially presented at WCTR 13. They offer widely differing perspectives on freight sustainability, though have a couple of features in common. First, like most of the previous literature on the subject, they focus on the environmental dimension of sustainability. Although they do not explicitly adopt the broader ‘triple bottom line’ approach, many of the measures they discuss can also yield economic and social benefits. Second, they are all based on European research and experience, possibly reflecting the greater priority given to green freight issues in government and business circles in Europe and the availability of EU-funding to support research in this field.

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EuroPHit

Posted on: 20 November 2014
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EuroPHit aims to significantly increase the quality and energy efficiency of perhaps the most common type of refurbishment: retrofits conducted gradually, over a period of years. The EuroPHit project is co-funded within the European Commissions’s Intelligent Energy Europe programme.

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